I forget that sometimes, except when Rork Umber is here, and then I remember, all too well, who I am." He looked down, turned a page. So Aloil made a stone in the plain above Caerweddin speak for eight days and nights in such a loud voice that men as far as Umber and Meremont heard it, and the stone recited all Galil's secret, very bad attempts at writing poetry. Do you know that tale? Aloil was furious with Galil Ymris because the king refused to follow Aloil's advice during a seige of Caer-weddin, and as a result Aloil's tower was burned. Somewhere in here is the spell that made the stone talk on King's Mouth Plain. He dropped the earth and shook his head, feeling tears behind his throat and not knowing why. It must be the essence of peace, having no name, no memory. But I've never met a man so hidden from himself. His hands closed tight on Astrin's arms he shook Astrin a little, imperatively, and Astrin said, "I'll try. It's deep, deep." He stopped as Morgon rose. I couldn't reach the place where you have your name and your past hidden from yourself. They ate a breakfast of cold hare, wine and bread, then, carrying Astrin's tools, Xel following, they walked across the plain to the ancient, ruined city.Īstrin moved, the fire reflected strangely in his eyes. The rain had stopped the clouds hung broken above Wind Plain. Morgon heard him stirring at sunrise the next day and got up. Once, his hands full of the moist black earth, he caught the strong, good smell of it, and something leaped in him, longing, responding. He worked all day at Astrin's side, digging quietly in a little room whose floor was sunk beneath the earth, crumbling the earth in his hands, searching it for bits of metal, glass, pottery. Then I remembered the name of her favorite pig out of all the pig herds of Hel: the speaking pig, Hegdis-Noon - and that name opened the book." He set the heavy book on the table, pored through it. I tried her name to open the book, but that didn't work. Part of the poetry Aloil wrote was to the wizard Nun, in service to Hel. I bought the book from a trader it took me two years to learn the word to open it. He was the wizard in service to the Kings of Ymris for nine hundred years before he went to Lungold, then vanished along with the entire school of wizards seven hundred years ago. Then his eyes widened a little as he remembered, but Astrin continued, "Most people have forgotten. "Do you know who Aloil was?" Morgon shook his head. He touched them, murmuring a word, and they opened. It was locked with two apparently seamless bindings of iron. What are you trying to prove? King persisted.He rose as suddenly as he had sat down, and took from his shelves a heavy book with a name on it stamped in gold: Aloil. Strengthening indications, but nothing that looks like a structural uplift, anticline or salt dome. The crew and I will stick around until the fuel is gone, Admiral. We're running out of time, said Sandecker evenly.I expect a call from the new president at any moment, demanding to know what we're up to. There is no way they can single out the original. To anyone tuned into this sending frequency your voice and image come from forty different locations around the globe. They all receive and instantaneously relay your transmissions. NUMA's satellite communications network has a direct link with forty other stations. I can't bail you out if you're caught trespassing on the wrong side of the street. Not to change the subject, but keep a sharp eye in your rearview mirror. The Doodlebug can't produce a paying sandbar, Admiral, only find one. No Sandecker snapped back.Not until I damn well have to. He peered over the rims of his glasses as the admiral approached. In a glass-enclosed room set away from the rest of the humming machines a man in a white lab coat studied a stack of computer printout sheets. He walked up two flights of stairs to the computer section and passed through security. Then he rose from his chair and left the projection room. Sandecker watched as Pitt's figure faded from the screen.
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